Our principal, David Ramsay wrote a Blog in 2012 titled ‘Share market is Just Human Endeavour at work’ https://www.incomesolutions.com.au/sharemarket-is-just-human-endeavour-at-work/ In this article David uses the example of Graeme Clark and the development of the Cochlear ear and the successful listing of this company on the stock exchange. However, the real inspiration behind this story is the scientific technology that was developed that allows people who have never heard to hear.

Today, almost 10 years later the inspiration of human endeavour behind the share market has never been more evident, especially using the development of the COVID vaccine to perfectly demonstrate the innovation and technology that drives share markets around the world.

Shares in Pfizer have surged to surpass its record all time high reached in 1999, hitting a high of $48.57, more than a dollar over its previous record of $47.39. This pharmaceutical giant has seen its revenue soar off the strength of it’s COVID vaccine. Of course, Pfizer isn’t the only stock benefitting from the successful development of a COVID vaccine, as Moderna is now valued at $200 billion, being now worth more than Merck with exploding vaccine sales.

The stories of human endeavor underpinning the above figures are many, but if we focus on just one, being the Pfizer vaccine development, we can build upon the earlier inspiration from Graeme Clark and the innovation behind the Cochlear ear. It needs to be noted that creating a vaccine in under a year is no small feat and is in part a reflection on global cooperation for vaccine research and distribution.

The Pfizer story starts with two German scientists, Ugur Sahin and Oezlem Tuereci, a husband-and-wife team who own a company called BioNTech. Ugur, Oezlem and BioNTech emerged from relative obscurity to produce a game changing vaccine to save lives in a pandemic, and today BioNTech stock has risen 900% since 2019 to be worth $61 billion.

Ugur and Oezlem’s daughter was recently quoted as stating in an interview that “even on their wedding day they both made time for lab work after the ceremony”. When the pandemic struck, they went to work on a project they called ‘Project lightspeed’. For Ugur and Oezlem it was not so much that they viewed the development of a COVID vaccine as an opportunity, but rather a duty as they knew they had the capacity and competence to apply the research they had already developed in working on drugs to treat cancer.

Working with Pfizer since 2018, Dr Sahin developed a friendship with Dr Albert Bourla, the Greek Chief Executive of Pfizer. Both stated they bonded over their shared background as scientists and immigrants, as Ugur migrated with his family from Turkey at aged 4 and his parents worked at the Ford Factory in Cologne.

While the people in the stories behind the share market are often individuals who are personally humble, their ambitions lie in their drive to create structures and alliances that can propel them to achieve their goals and aspirations which are often far from modest, such as creating a vaccine to save lives in a pandemic or new technologies to improve environmental outcomes.

Begin creating the structures to achieve your personal and financial goals by contacting Income Solutions: [email protected]